Hello beautiful people. The reality is you’re either reading this on the day this was posted, 31st of December, because you find New Years Eve too much stress and decided to have a chill one where you apparently read your emails, to which I say, I see you and I appreciate you, or you are reading this while sporting a small-to-large hangover/comedown on January 1st to which I say, Happy 2024!
As promised I told you we were going to do something a little different for the final newsletter of the year. I would love to do some cutesy roundup of my highlights and goals but I’ll be honest, 2023 might have been one of the most emotionally turbulent years, most of which I do not want to write about in detail. I had some incredible highs, including my first solo holiday, but also some tremendous lows, with my mental health reaching its lowest point over the summer after an almost-crisis. After a very strange few months, however I’m starting 2024 as a full-time writer still trying to figure out what the hell my life looks like for the next six months. I am very lucky and grateful that I held on by the skin of my teeth to get here. My one piece of advice I’ve learned this year?
Don’t look for anything specific when you go to a charity shop. Let divine providence find you in whatever form it takes, whether that’s knee high suede boots or a heat activated Danny DeVito mug.
I didn’t say it was going to be anything profound. Anyway, in the spirit of this sentiment and as my food coverage has been pretty comprehensive, instead of a lengthy essay about how great my life is, here is a brief list of everything else (aka non-edible) I’ve enjoyed this year.
TV:
Extraordinary: (Disney+) - it’s not often you can say your best friend was mentioned in the New Yorker but in January Extraordinary, which I probably mention on average at least once or twice a week for the last year and was written by said best friend, came out. A wacky, filthy superhero comedy in the vein of absolutely rammed full of jokes. What’snot to love? (Just don’t watch with your parents).
Smothered: A last minute entry but this little gem was popped out a few weeks before Christmas and by god it was just to just have a fun little rom-com which had plenty of both rom and com in nice balance. I loved Jon Pointing in Big Boys last year, and it’s great to see him again stepping up to very lovable leading man status, while Danielle Vitalis is a charmingly frenetic heroine. It’s a slight show, but the relationship feels like perhaps one of the most true to life I’ve seen in a long time.
Succession - Buckle up fuckleheads! Of course I only started watching Succession this year in time for the final season coming out and what a comedy! Great acting, great scripts, great cinematography, whats not to like? Except all of the characters of course, but that’s beside the point.
Books:
Taste - A cosy food memoir in the vein of Toast, but with Tucci’s winsome narrative voice and movie star anecdotes to pair with genuinely delicious food.
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow - A book telling the friendship and creative partnership of two complete idiots, whom I regularly wanted to bash their heads together, but also compelled me to finish within a day of reading. Also makes you want to play all the fictional games in it.
Our Wives Under The Sea - Read over one return flight back to the UK, I had to pull myself together at the end so I didn’t cry on a Ryanair flight. It’s less horror than it may seem, instead using body horror as haunting metaphor.
The Joy of Snacks - I wrote a whole newsletter on it so I don’t need to say here how much I enjoyed it, but nonetheless the cookbook that got me back into cooking.
Beautiful World, Where Are You - Rooney’s best yet. Thanks to Cherelle for recommending it - as usual it’s people being silly about love, but Simon and Eileen’s relationship in it is one of the sexiest I’ve read. Another win for the literary romance girlies. Also if you love romance, I also recommend the Brown Sisters series by Talia Hibbert, which Cherelle also put me onto, especially Take a Hint, Dani Brown!
Theatre:
Romeo and Juliet at the Royal Exchange - I would like to go to more theatre next year, especially if it’s anything like this production. A deftfully light interpretation, updating to modern-ish Manchester without any heavy handed concepts, just beautiful staging and choreography and one well-placed use of Build a Rocket Boys and stage rain to make me cry. Excellent!
Films:
Aftersun: Perhaps, visually one of the most beautiful films I’ve seen. Well acted double hander, which is devastating in its absences.
Past Lives: Another slight and melancholic character piece to break your heart, but a great treaty about how getting older leaves you to reconcile with the paths not taken, especially when it comes to love. A special kudos for how well-written the husband character was, especially considering how his sort of characters are often written as two-dimensional obstacles to the main couple’s pairings.
Fallen Leaves: While this entry by the Finnish filmmaker on the surface seems to be another well-shot character piece to break your heart, in reality it is a funny, stylish piece that actually gives you hope.
Love at First Sight/Rye Lane: There has been a real dearth of good romcom content on the streaming platforms lately but in me and my mum’s usual Christmas trawl we came across two little gems - Love at First Sight is the usual Netflix romance book adaptation, but with such excellent chemistry from the two leads and well-drawn emotional arcs outside the romance that realistically factor in the lovebird’s complications that it was a real treat (and make it easier to stomach the weird fate gimmick with Jameela Jamil).
Meanwhile Rye Lane was a fun and fresh take on a love story in a day as well as the genre where the third main character is London. It seamlessly integrates a straightforward story with zany and surreal sequences to leave you with a smile on your face. If you are in need of some love in the new year, I can highly recommend these two.
Barbie: Better than it had any right to be. Funny, camp, aesthetically on point, and dare I say, SUBLIME!
Music:
Feist - Multitudes - Multitudes is an apt title for this album as Feist’s years of songwriting experience come together in myriad ways to describe all the complicated emotions around grief and new motherhood. Also truly one of the best vocalists in the game, with the terrific opening line “Everybody’s got their shit” sung so beautifully.
Andy Shauf - Norm - The funniest thing to me that Andy Shauf claims that he cannot stop writing concept albums,and when when he tries not to, they turn out conceptual anyway., At least, that was the premise around Norm, but this luxuriously sunny-sounding album weaves in a forlorn love story between our broken-hearted protagonist Norm and his new paramour.
Rebecca Black - Let Her Burn - Internet darling Black’s first debut album, and much like Barbie, better than it had any right to be. It is full of catchy queer pop and club bangers, this is the sound of an artist very much coming into their own.
Raye - 21st Century Blues - Spiritually, I think Raye is the successor to Amy Winehouse, with similar vocal chops, and how she writes both with rage and vulnerability, but with more of a modern sound. Also covers an impressive range of genres very well and with a thoroughly modern sound.
Bombay Bicycle Club - My Big Day - The second album since their reunion, Now the buoys have all gotten comfortable playing with each other, it’s great to see that for this album they’ve taken a leaf from the Mr Jukes solo project and really decided to experiment with their sound. This is an album about maturing and growing older, and it’s really nice to hear bands talk and embrace it (I guess it’s hard not to when three-quarters of your band is bald). In the end they manage to create lots of bombastic, fizzy and exciting tunes, which are still Bombay Bicycle Club songs to their core but with the added depth of life’s experiences.
Hozier - Unreal Unearth - A lot of the press around this album talked about this album’s literary inspirations, but what it is really is a really good breakup album, which takes us through pretty much every stage through a range of genres. I’m sorry whoever broke your heart Hozier, but I am free if you are in need of comforting still.
Mitski - The Land is Inhospitable and So Are We - After the 80s tinged pop of Laurel Hell, Mitski returns with another album of sad love songs but this time it’s country? And surprisingly it really works. Truly some of her loveliest songs.
Sufjan Stevens - Javelin - The Sufjan album I have waited for, for so long. The album details the almost demise of a relationship with true Stevens-esque devastating bangers.
SZA - SOS - I can’t believe someone would dare be a fuckboi to SZA, one of the most beautiful women I’ve seen, but on SOS she compiles another album packed full with absolute breakup anthems (as well as some positive songs). I hope for her sake it’s all fiction but it’s great to hear her use some wider sonic inspirations.
Love Trapezium - Live, Laugh, Love Trapezium - I have to admit I do know these guys so I’m biased, but it’s been really lovely to see them progress and mature into one of the most exciting unsigned bands out there. They fuse genres effortlessly, and I can’t wait to see what they do next.
If you fancy listening to my favourite tracks of the year, you can do so here.
Bonus: Beauty!
I’m no beauty guru but there are two shout outs I’d like to make:
Glossier lipsticks - I know post Glossy it’snot cool to like Glossier anymore, but unfortunately this year I discovered they finally do the perfect barely there lipsticks for me, with nice natural brown nudey tones that go really well with my complexion. Specifically, this years MVPS were:
Also if you like perfume but hate the price tag, Perfume Parlour does really good dupes of a lot of fragrances, including Jo Malone and Maison Margiela’s replica range, here. I bought the Show Off Flowers for myself and have just ordered the Sunday Morning Replica dupe.
Finally, as you may know from everyone’s Instagram stories, this has been an absolute garbage bin fire year politically. The situation in Palestine has escalated to full-blown genocide, and the UK government, instead of actually dealing with their cost of living crisis which has left countless families hungry and cold this winter, have continued to needlessly target their vitriol to transgender people and children.
Therefore, I’ve put together a list of charities that you can donate to if you fancy it; I know this is an expensive time, so you can help in other ways through volunteering, fundraising, or even just sharing where you can, I’m sure it’s all greatly appreciated.
How to help Palestine:
I found this helpful website lists a variety of organisations you can donate to here.
That is all my highlights but before I go, I would like to give a massive thanks for all of my lovely friends and family who supported me in this incredibly rocky year. Whether it was in person or online, please know I wouldn’t have gotten through the year without you all. Sharing my work, cooking for me, letting me cry at you, offering genuinely useful advice, or even sending a silly meme, I love and appreciate you all. I really hope we can all celebrate at a book event next year.
That’s all for now, so I will see you all in 2024 (unless you’re already there then I hope it’s going well)! As always, if you have any requests for reviews or recommendations, do let me know. Otherwise if you have enjoyed, please share!